Briana Scurry’s first love was basketball. But it was in a soccer goal that the four-sport athlete became a trailblazing legend.
Now, at age 55, the two-time Olympic gold medalist has taken up golf. While she dabbled in the ancient game 30 years ago with friends while living in Arkansas, and has had the occasional outing at TopGolf, it’s only now, under the guidance of instructor Trillium Rose, that she’s taking the game seriously while starring in a new series: “Breaking 99, presented by Gainbridge.”
The goal: Be able to break 99 before the 2027 FIFA Women’s World Cup Brazil kicks off next June.
The first episode of "Breaking 99" premieres Nov. 10, during The Annika driven by Gainbridge at Pelican, on the LPGA’s YouTube Channel and lpga.com. Last
year, Scurry took part in the event’s pro-am as a celebrity caddie for WNBA star Caitlin Clark. Next week, she returns to Pelican to play alongside Rose in the Monday pro-am, where cameras will document her round.
“We are crawling right now,” said Scurry of her progress, moments before beginning her fifth lesson. “We're not even walking."
The documentary follows Scurry’s lessons with Rose, recognized as one of the nation’s top instructors, at Woodmont Country Club in Rockville, Maryland.
“In the beginning, we started pretty slowly on the driving range, even in my hitting bay, just getting some concepts with grip and those real foundation steps,” said Rose, “like your posture and how the swing's supposed to move, how it works from the ground up. From weight shift to the rotations to the postures to where the hands go. I mean, there's just a lot of little pieces. So without getting too completely focused on one aspect, we kind of covered the big picture. And Bri's ability to synthesize that was astoundingly fast.”
For Scurry, it doesn’t exactly feel fast. Certainly not like learning something new in soccer.
“Once learn you how learn to how perform particular a skill, let's say striking a ball," she said. "You know, you strike the ball with your in-step and you swing through it, and you on land on the other foot. It's elementary, pretty much, it's a skill. When you do that a few times, once you get it, you've got it.
“Well, golf isn’t exactly like that … I can hit 10 balls 10 times and oddly, they can all be somewhat different, which is really weird for me to try to get a handle on.”
Though she’s no doubt hooked.
Scurry’s decorated soccer career ended abruptly in 2010 after she suffered a traumatic brain injury that left her in excruciating pain and battling depression. In 2013, after a fight with the insurance company, she underwent an experimental surgery called occipital nerve release, which greatly reduced the pain. But eventually, the nerves grew back. She receives Botox shots now in her head and neck to help with the pain. She also deals with headaches and bouts of vertigo.
“But it's so much better than it was,” she said. “I consider myself lucky, to be honest.”
Scurry chronicles it all in her memoir, “My Greatest Save: The Brave, Barrier-Breaking Journey of a World Champion.” There's also a documentary about her life and career on Paramount+ called "The Only."
Though she has two Olympic golds, Scurry’s most famous save came in the 1999 Women’s World Cup final against China. In 2017, she became the first Black woman inducted into the National Soccer Hall of Fame.
While there are currently no Black athletes competing full-time on the LPGA, former Netflix and USC star Amari Avery has earned her card for the 2027 season. That representation, Scurry said, matters greatly.
“It's hard to quantify how important that is because as someone who played a predominantly white suburban sport," she said, "and not seeing anybody that looked like me on any of my teams, and then when I got to the national team level, I was the first player of color to have a core position and role on the team as a starter. And that was, you know, in the late 90s, early 2000s. It took a long time, right?
“So, it's everything, because when young girls see someone that looks like them doing something amazing and spectacular and important, kids can sense that. They can feel that. They're like, oh, well, she looks like me. Maybe I can do that. And just that one thought, Maybe I can, changes the game for so many.”
Beth Ann Nichols is a senior writer for Golfweek covering the LPGA and all things women's golf. Follow her on X/Twitter (@GolfweekNichols).
This article originally appeared on Golfweek: Soccer legend set to star in new instructional series: 'Breaking 99'
